Download store taps classical and jazz boom

The world's biggest record label yesterday unveiled a download store devoted to classical and jazz music, hoping to tap into a booming market for digital sales and promising to unlock a treasure trove of thousands of recordings that have sat in the vaults for decades.

The attention given to soaring rock and pop downloads has masked the shot in the arm that downloads have given to sales of classical and jazz music. According to Universal, sales of classical music downloads have soared by 1,000% in the last year and jazz sales have grown by 900%.

The new site will offer all of Universal's classical and jazz releases, including classic imprints such as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Verve and Impulse, running to 125,000 tracks taken from nearly 8,000 CDs. The repertoire available at launch will include every note written by Mozart, 265 albums of Beethoven compositions and jazz artists from recent crossover successes such as Jamie Cullum to legends such as John Coltrane.

Dickon Stainer, general manager of Universal Music Classics and Jazz, said the new site would appeal to aficionados who wanted to track down an obscure recording and casual listeners who might be intimidated by specialist stores. "It's going to be a new golden era for audiophiles," said Mr Stainer.

One frustration for many music lovers will be that tracks downloaded using the service will not be compatible with Apple's market-leading iPod, due to the Californian company's insistence on retaining control of its digital rights management software. Universal will also continue to make its catalogue available through iTunes.